SMUS IPv6

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is a new method of assigning Internet addresses. The previous method was called IPv4. Google has a great explanation of what IPv6 is and why we need it here: http://www.google.ca/intl/en/ipv6/

Essentially, your devices now has two addresses:

172.16.0.39 -- Sample IPv4 address

2620:00ed:4000:1600:0000:0000:0000:0027 -- Sample IPv6 address

Websites and services that are available over IPv6 will use your IPv6 address. IPv4 is used as a fallback for sites and services that do not support IPv6.

What differences should I notice?

You should not notice any difference when browsing the Internet or accessing services and devices over IPv6.

SMUS services on IPv6

All services that SMUS hosts that are accessible from off campus are now available over IPv4 and IPv6. This helps to ensure that all users, regardless of their location and IP protocol, are able to access our services.

Note that some older applications, such as Integrade Pro, do not support IPv6. These applications will gradually stop working once Internet service providers transition to IPv6-only networks.

What devices support IPv6?

Most modern devices support IPv6, including PCs, Macs, tablets, and phones.

The notable exceptions, at least on the SMUS network, are personal Google Android and personal Google Chromebook devices. Because Chromebooks and Android devices do not support the stateful DHCPv6 addressing option, they are not able to acquire an IPv6 address on our network. Additional discussion on this issue is available in the Google bug tracker: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=32621

School-owned Chromebook devices signed into the AirSMUS-staff network with the chromebook user have a special configuration that supports IPv6. This configuration cannot be applied to personal devices.

How can I tell whether I am using IPv6?

There are several sites you can use to test your IPv6 connectivity. Try one of these two sites:

http://test-ipv6.com

http://ipv6-test.com

Discontinuation of IPv4

At this point we do not have any timeframe for discontinuation of IPv4 connectivity. Many sites on the Internet are not available over IPv6, and so eliminating IPv4 would stop access to those sites.

Impact to student wifi

Most devices on student wifi will now get two different addresses (IPv4 and IPv6). These two addresses have separate bandwidth totals and caps, so we have effectively doubled your Netrack allowance. The only difficulty is that it is hard to predict whether you will access a site over IPv4 or IPv6, so if you exceed your cap for either address some sites may be slowed down (the ones accessed via your capped IP version) while others may remain fast (the ones accessed via your non-capped IP version).

You can check your bandwidth usage for both IP versions by using different Netrack addresses:

https://netrack.smus.ca (IPv6)

https://netrack4.smus.ca (IPv4)

The login bar displays your current address in the top right corner. You can also the link in the top right to switch between the different IP versions.

Because of the new Netrack version, we have had to clear out any traffic email notifications you had set up. Please log into each site and set up subscriptions again if desired. If you set up an IPv4 and IPv6 notification, they will be combined into one email when delivered nightly.